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Using IDEAS to secure
growth finance Clydesdale & Yorkshire Banking Group’s growth finance team may have just celebrated its second record-breaking year on the trot, but David Hayers explains why he and his colleagues aren’t resting on their laurels. DAVID Hayers could be forgiven for celebrating. As head of growth finance at Clydesdale & Yorkshire Banking Group (CYBG), he and his team have lent a record amount to their customers for the second year in a row, taking the total number of companies to which the team has lent to more than 40. But Hayers and his colleagues aren’t sitting back and relaxing. Instead, they’re continuing to spread the word about how their customers can borrow money based on the extent of their intellectual property (IP). “IP is notoriously difficult to value,” explains Hayers. “But if more entrepreneurs hear about the deals that we’re doing, then more of them will start to consider whether it’s an option for them and their business.” Two of the sectors in which CYBG’s growth finance is proving most popular are software and advanced manufacturing. Technology
companies often have developed proprietary software platforms, which allow the bank to lend money based on their revenue generating capability, while manufacturers will usually hold patents or have patents pending, again giving the team something slightly more tangible over which to run their slide-rules. “We’re seeing good growth across the whole of the multi-faceted software sector,” says Hayers. “We’re looking at a lot of businesses that operate a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model. “It’s a similar story across the advanced manufacturing sector too. There is such a broad spread of businesses interested in growth finance. In reality, the specific sector is not as important as the strength and depth of the IP.” A great example of how CYBG has supported innovative companies in this
record-breaking year is P2i, a business based in Oxford that makes liquid-repellent coatings for smartphone components. The firm’s technology operates at the nanometre scale; a single sheet of A4 paper is about 100,000 nanometres thick, illustrating the minute scale on which P2i’s technology works. A longstanding CYBG customer, P2i leveraged its substantial IP to secure a significant increase in its borrowing from the bank, taking its total debt facilities to £10m in May 2017. The company was spun-out from the Ministry of Defence in 2014 and turned its maiden profit in 2016. The company had previously raised £70m of equity funding from investors including ADV Partners, Ombu and Unilever Ventures. It already has more than 120 patents to its name and its technology has been used to protect in excess of 175 million mobile phones.
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